Bishop to move forward with diocesan capital campaign

By William T. Clew | The Catholic Free Press

The Worcester Diocese will conduct a capital campaign over the next two years to address “critical diocesan and parish capital issues,” Bishop McManus announced this week.
The campaign will be conducted by Guidance in Giving Inc., the bishop said. Guidance in Giving, of Bayport, N.Y., is a Catholic organization that has been involved with stewardship and development throughout the country and has raised more than $5 billion in the last 38 years.
No overall diocesan goal has been set yet. Every parish will have a financial target based on its average annual offertory income, the bishop wrote in a letter to priests of the diocese.
 “The target will not be an assessment,” he said. “Each parish will receive 40 percent of the funds it raises up to their target and 60 percent of what it raises over their parish goal.”
It is the second capital campaign in the history of the diocese, he said. The first, called Forward in Faith, was conducted nearly 20 years ago and had a $40 million goal. Gifts and pledges totaled $50 million, the diocese states in an online report at worcesterdiocese.org/forward-in-faith.
In his letter, the bishop said “the $18.5 million raised for diocesan endowments for priests’ retirement, Catholic schools and religious education have served us well, although the need has far outweighed the available annual disbursements for priests’ retirement and school tuition aid.
“Now we have an opportunity to grow these endowments to address our long-term challenges. Forward in Faith also generated $14.1 million for parishes to address their various capital needs.
“Our goal now is to raise a similar amount again to help with long-overdue capital projects in our parishes, to reduce parish debts, and to build stronger ministries for the future.”
A feasibility study to determine “if our diocese was in a position to raise funds to address critical diocesan and parish capital issues” was conducted by the consultants.
Their representatives met with 90 pastors and with associate pastors and lay people and analyzed survey responses from more than 400 households to develop a  comprehensive analysis of donors. It also made recommendations about the preliminary cases for the campaign, the feasibility of various campaign goals, a timetable of activity and leadership gift profiles.
The bishop said that he received a planning study report in April that, “in summary, demonstrated that we have the potential to raise a significant amount of funding to address many of the issues tested through the surveys and meetings. ...
“Therefore, after careful deliberations and discussions with numerous priests and lay faithful, I have made the decision to move forward with a capital campaign to be conducted over the next two years”, he said.
For the next six months, personnel from Guidance in Giving will assist in establishing advisory boards, and “continue to refine the leadership-gift phase of the campaign,” the bishop said. During that time a final goal will be determined.
In the long term, they will assist every parish in conducting local capital campaigns in “waves,” to be concluded by 2020. 
“In the near future, they will contact pastors and administrators to determine the best time over the next two years for the parish to implement its campaign. With their help we will invite each parishioner to consider prayerfully how they may participate in this critical campaign,” the bishop said.  
“Since my installation as the fifth Bishop of Worcester, I have been blessed to minister to the faithful throughout our beloved Diocese of Worcester. Together, we have received tremendous blessings and have accomplished so much over the years thanks, in particular, to the continuing success of the annual Partners in Charity appeal which addresses the day-to-day operational needs of diocesan ministries and agencies.
“Those needs are uniquely different from capital issues and so the Partners in Charity appeal will continue to be conducted annually in order to maintain our charitable, pastoral and educational outreach to tens of thousands of people who are in need.
“I thank God for the generosity of the people of our diocese, as evidenced by Partners in Charity and the weekly offertory collection in our parishes. I am confident that we will be successful in this capital campaign as we prepare for the future of our diocese and its parishes,” the bishop said.